Fun with neocons

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minus one hour in life answering questions about the Bush administration:

Me: Hello?
Lady: This is the California Republican Party . . .
Me (interrupting): This is nice because I&#39;ve been wanting to ask a few questions. First, where are the weapons of mass destruction? Bush repeatedly said Iraq had weapons, Cheney continues to say it.
Lady: Iraq was making deals with France and Russia so that the UN wouldn&#39;t invade.
Me: Take it to alt.conspiracy.* newsgroups. I believe Bush&#39;s words were "The British intelligence has learned that the Saddam sought to obtain large quantities of uranium from Africa."
Lady: You do realize we have been under attack for more than 25 years.
Me: From Saddam Hussein? (chuckle) Strange, I thought he had only been in power since the 80s, and that he was installed by Reagan.
Lady: No, from the terrorists.
Me: Care to prove the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, then? Other than the fact that both Saddam and Osama were buddy-buddy with the Reagan administration, of course. As was Iran, hence the IRAN-Contra scandal. Also, why exactly did Halliburton get a no-bid contract? Bush and his ilk tend to forget that the capitalist system thrives on competition, which a monopoly is not.

It went on like this, touching on gay marriage, Canadian drugs, the Bush tax plan, the mission to Mars, etc. for another hour or so.

Lady: Is this a prank call?
Me: Funny, since you called me, I was about to ask the same question.

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Originally posted by jonb@Oct 27 2004, 05:13 PMminus one hour in life answering questions about the Bush administration:

Me: Hello?
Lady: This is the California Republican Party . . .
Me (interrupting): This is nice because I&#39;ve been wanting to ask a few questions. First, where are the weapons of mass destruction? Bush repeatedly said Iraq had weapons, Cheney continues to say it.
Lady: Iraq was making deals with France and Russia so that the UN wouldn&#39;t invade.
Me: Take it to alt.conspiracy.* newsgroups. I believe Bush&#39;s words were "The British intelligence has learned that the Saddam sought to obtain large quantities of uranium from Africa."
Lady: You do realize we have been under attack for more than 25 years.
Me: From Saddam Hussein? (chuckle) Strange, I thought he had only been in power since the 80s, and that he was installed by Reagan.
Lady: No, from the terrorists.
Me: Care to prove the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, then? Other than the fact that both Saddam and Osama were buddy-buddy with the Reagan administration, of course. As was Iran, hence the IRAN-Contra scandal. Also, why exactly did Halliburton get a no-bid contract? Bush and his ilk tend to forget that the capitalist system thrives on competition, which a monopoly is not.

It went on like this, touching on gay marriage, Canadian drugs, the Bush tax plan, the mission to Mars, etc. for another hour or so.

Lady: Is this a prank call?
Me: Funny, since you called me, I was about to ask the same question.

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Thankfully, I don&#39;t have to worry about such calls, since I only have a cellphone.

And I&#39;m kind of surprised that they would bother cold-calling in California. Bush has no chance whatsoever of winning California, so why spend the money there when you could be harassing Floridians?

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Irritatingly enough, I&#39;ve been getting blast text messages from the republicans on my cell phone. Tmobile has not b een able to detect the origin of the calls to stop them despite numerous attempts, which really pisses me off. Grrrrr.

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Jon B , Bush HAS NOT already won anything. He leads in states with 222 electoral votes, Kerry in states with 216. Florida has the NAACP , Michael Moore and thousands of volunteers with video cameras and thousands of Democratic lawyers all over it. The GOP will be monitored this time.
Fortunately for us, this time, THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING&#33;

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But there&#39;s still electronic voting. It&#39;s very difficult to monitor every single polling station. Electronic voting reminds me of some really bad SF memes such as living (and thus semipermeable) starships. If you believe Diebold and similar companies, printing your vote will compromise security. The problem is regulatory entanglement; only Diebold can check the machines. In the old days, you could watch while these kindly old women counted the votes at the end of the day. Now, sorry, trade secret. One more point for open-source software.

I&#39;d also look for voter fraud in Ohio and Michigan too. Maybe South Dakota too, since Indians were responsible for Johnson being elected; the GOP&#39;s still a bit upset about that.

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Originally posted by jonb@Nov 1 2004, 11:54 AMBut there&#39;s still electronic voting. It&#39;s very difficult to monitor every single polling station. Electronic voting reminds me of some really bad SF memes such as living (and thus semipermeable) starships. If you believe Diebold and similar companies, printing your vote will compromise security. The problem is regulatory entanglement; only Diebold can check the machines. In the old days, you could watch while these kindly old women counted the votes at the end of the day. Now, sorry, trade secret. One more point for open-source software.

I&#39;d also look for voter fraud in Ohio and Michigan too. Maybe South Dakota too, since Indians were responsible for Johnson being elected; the GOP&#39;s still a bit upset about that.

[post=261976]Quoted post[/post]​

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Those Kindly Old Women are Dibold pensioners now.

One KOW who worked a precinct where I was assigned to vote (on Reagan/Carter election day) was sitting in one of those odd places in the church multipurpose room where a simple whisper from her position could be heard at one of the voting booths clear over on the other side of the room. The poor dear not only had difficulty pronouncing names (which she looked up for verification on the registrar&#39;s computer printout) but she apparently had gas, too.

Stepping into my voting booth I could hear a voter&#39;s name pronounced hesitantly in her quivering voice, just as clearly as if she were standing next to me. Flipping the chosen levers I heard a couple more names but just as I reached for the lever to open the curtains and exit the booth I heard "Thank goodness we&#39;ve run out of people for a while," she sighed, followed by the plaintiff sound of a long-held fart.

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Originally posted by LuckyLuke@Nov 1 2004, 07:34 PMI&#39;ve almost gotten my head ripped off for saying it, but &#39;civilized&#39; democratic countries use paper ballots that can be counted, recounted and independently verified.

And arguments about the speed of counting the results don&#39;t wash with me. Elections are not a race.

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Man, I agree. I&#39;d rather wait a few hours more for a thorough vote count and, if necesary, an even more thorough recount than otherwise. Why is it seen as being so damn important that results be rushed?